Talking about this title, as a huge fan of this franchise since I became interested in games, still on the Gameboy, is to say without fear how happy this milestone is for the franchise. This happens because in recent years we have repeatedly seen games with the same proposal being presented one after the other and without stopping.

Before, it was a fact that the story was about a boy who sought to be a great trainer and venture across different maps in a turn-based battle. So, it's no exaggeration to say that this is the launch that not only big fans have been waiting for, but also that Nintendo has always wanted, with the innovations proposed by developer Game Freak, which show a strong name that is increasingly alive.

I'll tell you, almost everything from one of the standard games has been discarded here, gyms, final battles in that other world, a team of villains wanting to dominate the world and among others, as I said, the proposal for this one is totally different. Legends: Arceus is only available for Nintendo Switch and was released on January 28, 2022.



The power of reinvention

As I mentioned before, a lot has changed and, in fact, it has reached a point where it even seems like a completely new game with completely different ideas, this happens because even the mechanics of capturing Pokémon, for example. Not to mention the new forms of battle and the completely different story. But of course, this is one of the game's great charms and the reason it attracts so many players (apart from all the nostalgia that makes playing Pokémon an annual canonical event in all of our lives).

Explaining, now to capture Pokémon you will need other skills than just battle, which is also an option, however, nothing stops you from throwing a Pokeball directly, just aim the crosshair and hit it, but be careful, some will run away when notice your presence, so you will need to stay stealthy in the grass so that they do not detect your presence. This way, the developers made it clearer what the dangerous and skittish Pokémon are and can even attack you (for the first time, there is a dodge button for the player).



Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that exploration takes a leap forward compared to previous games, easily in Legends the open world style is much more applied than that linearity in which we arrive in the game already knowing everything what to do and who to face, this it also clearly affected the construction of the story, taking place in a slightly different way than usual. I mean, each map not only has different monsters for us to discover and complete our pokedex, but also different climates and geography from the previous one.

The region is made up of several areas, but they are not all unlocked right away, and you will often be prevented from moving forward in exploration due to this factor. The player will have to return to the main city to gain access to the desired region, which takes away from the completely open world style, imposing its limitations.

Furthermore, and this is probably the biggest difference apart from the open world and the old narratives, there are now secondary missions to be followed, so exploring the same area in 2 or 3 attempts is recurrent, whether to achieve these objectives or find new pokemons. according to time of day or items for manufacturing.



A little to gear up

Arceus' narrative itself is not exactly one of its strongest points, as I have a clear impression that it only becomes more interesting after a while of gameplay. Created for all audiences, we will play with a character in a time period before Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, in which our protagonist, through a rift in space-time, goes to a region of Sinnoh.

Here, many of the plots will involve residents' problems that need to be resolved, but none of these characters are really interesting and the dialogues are a bit monotonous and consequently boring. However, after some time, the main story takes a turn, but the fact is that this is not the game's greatest charm, for example, the biggest personal reason was actually the exploration system.



Simulation

Speaking of the graphics, the impression I had was that of a clear attempt at a simulation of human interaction with wild animals, as, in an open forest, we are faced with creatures that will try to attack us, emerging a need for defense as we try to hunt them down. reach a goal. Given this, the developers really got the art style right to seek the best possible immersion.

However, the fact is that the Nintendo Switch has less quality visual feedback for users, so the first impression is that the characters and environments are not the most beautiful, and rather have several defects. It is worth mentioning that this criticism is focused on the quality of the console, but it is a fact that on the same platform I have seen games with better graphic quality. I can't help but comment, the sound system delivers a good experience, with an excellent soundtrack and qualitative sounds in battles and game actions, helping the player's idea of immersion.